In previous versions of Stage3D, after switching the render texture through Context3D::setRenderToTexture, you were required to clear it before drawing. In this release, we're removing this limitation and optimizing the use of render textures. This change will allow you to further optimize and reuse depth and stencil buffers between different render textures.

Flash Player now has improved support for browser zoom factors other than 100% on Internet Explorer on Windows 8.x. Devices, like the Microsoft Surface tablets, default to a zoom level of 150%. In the past, this could cause problems with Flash Player and some 3D content. With our new implementation, we can now scale the content and 3D buffers to keep everything aligned. In addition, Flash Player introduces an option to render to an increased Stage3D back buffer, rather than scaling, on browser zoom to keep the resolution of the rendered content high. This option allows to the stage3D buffer to change in size in synch with the change in the browser zoom factor. Developers are notified of this change with a new ZOOM_FACTOR_CHANGE event.

Flash Player will now detect and appropriately scale your content to fit best in a fullscreen display when your device orientation is changed. This change is specific to Windows and is implemented across all browsers. We're focusing on providing the best tablet experience possible. A resize event will fire when in fullscreen mode and the device orientation changes. Developers, if your content does not resize, you will need to handle the resize event appropriately. Additional details will be made available in a separate blog post.

We're pleased to announce that hardware video decoding is now enabled by default for Chrome users on Windows. This feature will drastically reduce the CPU usage and improve performance on supported videos players. We're working closely with Google to bring this feature to OS X and will provide additional details when available.

Automatic software fall back with StageVideo

Flash Player 15 now supports a Software version of StageVideo that provides an automatic failover to the software version when hardware StageVideo is not available. To leverage this automatic failover, the swf apps need to be compiled for Flash Player 15 and above.

When the swfs are compiled for Flash Player 15 and above, and when hardware StageVideo is unavailable, the app will get a StageVideoAvailability event as earlier, but instead of being "Unavailable" it will ALWAYS be "available", and the reason will always be "noError". The app will no longer need to implement a Video object failover as the failover is automatic inside flash player. The apps can still choose to use Video object instead of StageVIdeo if needed.

Hardware StageVideo availability is dependent on a number of factors, including:

Browser hardware rendering support: If available, all wMode based apps will support hardware StageVideo. If not available, wMode=direct based apps will be the only ones that will support hardware StageVideo, unless there are other exceptions, like the ones mentioned below.

On Windows:

IE11: IE has an accelerated pipeline and the FlashPlayer is HW accelerated in all wmode, so StageVideo should always be available. Note that the decision to use the HW accelerate rendering pipeline reside in IE.

Firefox: There is currently no HW accelerated pipeline available in Firefox on windows and only wMode direct will have StageVideo available all other wMode should generate a unavailable event.

Chrome: Pepper has HW acceleration in all wMode, but some restrictions apply. For example Chrome will refuse to use HW acceleration on Windows XP and it has its own driver blacklisting mechanism. It is also possible for the user to disable the HW acceleration in the settings panel. Chrome exposes a somewhat useful page to allow one to see the status of its gpu acceleration: chrome://gpu/

On Mac:

Safari: All wMode should expose StageVideo

Firefox: All wModes should expose StageVideo

Chrome: All wMode should expose StageVideo, with the same limitations as the windows version.

Driver version: Certain older drivers may not support hardware StageVideo

User settings: If a user turns off hardware acceleration, then hardware StageVideo will not be available

Full Screen: Hardware StageVIdeo is always available in Full Screen mode.

When the hardware StageVideo fails because of browser support, wMode, driver version or user settings, starting with Flash Player 15, SW StageVideo will be used automatically without needing any configuration or code in the app.

New MMS.CFG Flag - EnableInsecureJunctionBehavior

Flash Player 15 restricted the ability for Flash Player in Internet Explorer to write to paths that traversed Junction files in Windows. This affected some enterprise organizations that relied on redirected user folders that also leveraged Junctions, and we have introduced a new mms.cfg that allows organizations to revert to the insecure behavior as temporary pain relief. We recommend that administrators only use this flag as a short-term workaround.

This Flag only works in Internet Explorer with Protected Mode disabled.

Current Flash Player users that have enrolled in the "Allow Adobe to install updates (recommended)" update option will receive this release automatically and silently within 24 hours. Users that have selected the "Notify me to install updates" update option will receive an update notification dialog within 7 days from today. Windows users will need to restart their system or log out and in to receive the notification dialog.

Please note that both Flash Player for Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows 8.x are updated using different mechanisms. Flash Player for Google Chrome updates will occur during regular Chrome updates. Flash Player updates for Internet Explorer on Windows 8.x will be provided by Microsoft though the Windows automatic update feature.

If you would like to install the update immediately, please use one of the links below:

If you encounter a problems with broken or missing links, please clear your browser cache and try again. If the problem persists, please create a new post in our forum or send email to ccampbel@adobe.com.